The participants lodged a strong protest against Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit on Monday to the Yasukuni Shrine, where the memorial tablets of 14 Class-A war criminals are enshrined.

At the seminar held in the Memorial Museum of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the experts and scholars said the victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression marks the beginning of the Chinese nation's rejuvenation, and is the first complete triumph for China in its 100-year-odd history of combating aggression and achieving the nation's liberation and independence.

The Chinese people will never forget the Japanese aggressors' atrocities and the sufferings the Japanese militarists brought to the Chinese nation, they said.

The scholars pointed out that several Japanese prime ministers visited the shrine after the World War II, in private or public capacity, in an attempt to revive militarism.

Such acts violated all Sino-Japanese joint declarations and treaties and constituted a provocation to the peace-loving people of the two countries, they said.

It is natural that such acts have aroused the indignation of the Asian countries and their people that had suffered from the aggression by Japanese militarists, they said.

The participants pointed out that such behavior was meant to reverse the verdict of the Far-East International Military Tribunal and to try to shirk Japan's responsibility for the war of aggression.

That is a dangerous signal of reviving militarism and will certainly arouse serious concern in Japan's neighboring countries in Asia and in the world as a whole, said one scholar.

The participants also said that the shrine visit by the Japanese prime minister would undermine the Sino-Japanese friendship nurtured by generations of people of the two countries and has deeply hurt the feelings of the people of all countries that suffered from the aggression.

The scholars also pointed out that the Japanese government connived at right-wing forces' plot to deny and distort its history of aggression. The new version of a Japanese history textbook whitewashes Japan's invasion of Asian countries, regardless of the fact that the Japanese militarists committed countless atrocities in its 14 years of invasion, historians said at the seminar.

Recently a number of Japanese lawmakers and other politicians have made remarks distorting historical facts, the scholars said. People have reason to doubt the Japanese Government's sincerity in reflecting on Japan's war of aggression.

The Japanese government's attempt to shirk war responsibilities by confusing right and wrong is sure to evoke the indignation of the people of the victimized countries, the scholars said.

The participants called on the Japanese government to shoulder its responsibility and seriously reflect on Japan's responsibility for the crimes in the war of aggression.

The Japanese government should treasure the hard-won Sino- Japanese friendship and contribute to the peace and stability in Asia and the world at large, the scholars said.

(people.com.cn 08/16/2001)